Apparatus for manufacturing long fibre into yarn



April 15, .1947.

s E. THOMAS Er AL AIAPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING LONG FIBER INTO YARN Filed Nov. 17, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 April l5, 1947- s. E. THOMAS Erm. 2,418,998

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING LONG FIBER INTO YARN Filed NOV. 17, 1944 2 Sheetsbsheet 2 RG) I we 2g N 1 Hl f `iif Patented Apr. 15, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE'.A

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING LONG FIBRE INTO YARN Samuel E.. Thomas and Walter R. Guthrie, Allentown, Pa., asslgnors to Lehigh Spinning Company, Allentown, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvanla Application November 17,1944, Serial No. 563,892

6 Claims. (Cl. 19-158) 'of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, published by the Government Printing Office in 1907, re veals 'that fibres adapted for spinningv may be divided into fabric, netting, and cordage fibres. Cordage fibres are rarely used in weaving and netting because they are a hardbre, and they are also long fibres. The method and apparatus of the present invention has particular application to the manufacture of a yarn from long vegetable fibre. It also has particular application to any long artificial fibres such as synthetic cellulose fibres prepared by the viscose, acetate, cuprammonium, nitrocellulose, and other processes, the product being known as rayon; or the artificial fibres of cellulose .zanthate, known as Cellophane; or the artificial bres from the relatively new protein-like polyamides known as nylon Flax, ramie, jute, etc., are examples of the long, soft, vegetable fibre, while coir, and manila, sisal, and common hemp are examples of long, hard, vegetable cordage nbre referred to herein.

The object of the present invention resides in the creation of apparatus which permits the long fibre both hard and soft, which has been collected in a compact unit, such as a roll, under pressure, to be fed directly from the compact units to machines that perform certain subsequent steps in the method of treatment.

Another feature of the presentl invention involves the combination of a creel with a breaker card for supporting the rolls of soft fibre sliver being fed to a breaker card, whereby the sliver may be fed directly from Ithe rolls to the feed belt or apron of the breaker card.

Creels of the prior art are not adapted to prop-k erly feed large rolls of soft fibre which have been tightly formed and in which it is not uncommon to have in excess of 300 pounds of the fibre in a roll of approximately five feet in diameter and six inches in thickness. When attempts have been made to feed the fibre from rolls of bre thus formed from creels of known type, the fibre becomes snarled and difficulty is encountered in unwinding.

In the present device the soft fibre of each lap is positively separated from the roll as it is fed to the breaker or finisher card so that the sliver'l previously formed in a uniform manner maintains such uniformity into the breaker card.

It is accordingly among the purposes of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will receive rolls having fibre tightly wound thereon, separate each lap of fibre from the roll prior its movement to the breaker or finisher card and uniformly feed the lap of fibre to the breaker or nisher card.

Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a Vbreaker card showing in side elevation, a creel for supporting the rolls of fibre combined therewith.

Figure 2 is a vertical section through the creel taken substantially on the plane 0f line 2--2 of Figure 3 looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 3 is a rear elevation of the creel on the side next to the breaker card.

Figure 4 is a vertical section taken on the plane of line 4 4 of Figure 3 and looking in the direction of the arrows.

yReferring to the drawings where the apparatus is disclosed. it will be seen that the creel W isI combined with the breaker card D in a novel manner so that several rolls H2 may present the several slivers in doubled relation to the feed apron or belt 'of the breaker card for the usual breaking. treatment provided by the regulation breaker cards of the cylinder type.

The breaker card shown includes upright side frames 30! and an inclined endless feed belt or apron 302 driven by the usual method, not shown. The feed belt receives the several slivers from the cree] W and feeds them to feed rolls (not shown) of the breaker card D which rolls are mounted on shaft 303 and driven thereby. The shaft 303 is journaled in the side frames 30| and has a sprocket 304 xed thereto on the outside of the breaker card, and power for driving the traction drive rolls of the creel W, as will presently appear, is taken from the sprocket 304.

In the form of the creel W shown, there is a cage-like body for housing the rolls of sliver. The roll housing is formed of a substantially rectangular open bottom frame\which rests on a platform 306 on the iioor 307. The bottom frame is made with a pair of spaced parallel end pieces 308, 309 formed of steel channel bars, and parallel cross-pieces, preferably three in number, formed ofv steel angle bars 3H), 3H, 3l2.

cross-pieces are secured at their opposite ends to the end pieces 308, 309 in any suitable manner,

The

` The sides of the roll housing are defined byl four upright corner posts 3|3 formed oi.' steel angle bars, the lower ends of two of which are secured in any suitable manner to one of the outer cross-pieces 3I0, and the other two being likewise secured to the cross-piece 3|2. The tops of the corner posts 3I3, are vsecured to the hori zontal substantially rectangular angle iron frame consisting of end pieces 3|4 and side pieces 3|'5, suitably secured together.

There are spaced vertical partition posts 322 extending from the bottom frame of the sliver roll housing to the top frame thereof, and these posts are secured at their opposite ends respectively, as at 323, 324. Secured to the partition posts, as by welding 325, are spaced vertical plates 326 which define sliver roll winding stalls 321 that open on each side, the one side facing the breaker card D and the .other side for loading andunloading the rolls of sliver.

The layers of fibre on the roll are tightly compacted and in order to remove the layers from the roll and feed the material uniformly to the card, drive-rolls 332 and 332 mounted on shafts 333, 334 support the roll of sliver I2a. The ends of these shafts are journaled in bearings 335 on the end of channel bars 308 and 309.

An idle roll 33S has its shaft 331 journaled in bearings 338 on the end bars I308 and 309 and this roll lies between the drive rolls 332 andthe feed belt 302 of the breaker. The idle roll 336 runs slightly faster than the drive rolls to prevent any slack in the sliver being fed to the feed belt 302.

Each layer of fibres on the roll formed, under pressure without longitudinal tension as previously described, adheres to the adjacent layer and when unwound in a normal manner there is a tendency as one layer` is removed to pull or tear fibres of the adjacent layer therewith thus interfering with the uniformity of the feed to the card. To overcome this difliculty roll 332 is provided with a fiuted ratchet surface and driven at speed substantially greater than roll 332' which is provided with a smooth surface. The result of this iiuted ratchet drive at the substantially greater speed is to separate the layers previously formed with a plus lead from the roll and form a looseness of the sliver between rolls 332 and 332. The longitudinal speed of the sliver to the card is substantially the same as the peripherlal speed of the fiuted ratchet roll 332 there being a certain amount `of slip over roll 332'.

I'he drive shaft 334 on which roll 332' is mounted, receives its power from any shaft on the breaker card, preferably from the most convenient point which is the feed roll shaft 303. The shaft 303 is connected to a transmission train of gears 340 mounted on the side frame 30| by the chain drive 34|, thence to a double pulley 342 by chain 343. The pulley 342 is connected to one pulley 344 on shaft 334 by chain 345. The fluted ratchet drive' roll 332 is driven by the chain and sprocket connection 34B, and by suitable size of sprocket may be given the desired differential speed, while the Vidle roll 336 is driven from shaft 334 by the chain and sprocket connection 341.

Extending across the side of the sliver roll housing are a pair of bars 35| having their ends anchored to the end channel bars 308, 309 by clamps 352. When the roll of sliver ||2a is to be taken directly from the Goods machine, in the case of hard fibre, or from the conditioning room, in the case of soft fibre, it is lifted by a crane from the transporting truck, not shawn, and deposited on the bars 35|, where the operator rolls it ontothe cradle of thedrive rolls The sliver from roll ||2a .is then passed to the feed belt 302 of the breaker card over idle roll 335. It will be understood that the number of rolls of sliver unwound by the creel and fed to the breaker card depends upon the number of stalls 321 that are provided, the amount of doubling of the sliver being dependent upon the capacity of the breaker card being used.

It is the aim of the method of treating hard and soft fibre to utilize a creel of the foregoing principle on every intermediate step from the combing operation to and including the drawing operations in both the hard and soit fibre methods. i

We claim:

1. In an apparatus for making yarn from long fibres having a minimum length of two feet, the improvements in supporting and feeding appal ratus for continuous sliver comprising a housing having stalls open at opposite ends whereby rolls of sliver may -be loaded from one end and the sliver fed from the other end, a pair of traction applying rolls mounted in the housing and trav-u ersing the stalls with one of said traction apply" ing rolls nearest the loading end and the other said traction applying roll nearest the end from which the sliver is fed, said traction applying rolls arranged to peripherally support a roll of sliver and means to drive the first mentioned traction roll at a speed greater than the driven speed o the second mentioned traction roll whereby the sliver is disengaged from the' roll and a loose loop formed between the rolls.

2. In an apparatus for supporting and feeding sliver to the feed apron f a carding Ymachine comprising a housing having stalls open at oppo site ends whereby rolls of continuous sliver ymay be loaded from one end and the sliver fed from the other end, a roughened traction applying roll mounted in the housing and traversing the stalls,

` said roughened roll4 being positioned toward the loading end of the housing, a smooth traction applying roll mounted in the housing and traI ersing the housing, said smooth roll being postA tioned toward the feeding end of the housing, said traction applying rolls. .adapted to periph erally support a roll of sliver, means to drive the roughened roll at a peripheral speed substantially greater than the driven speed of the smooth roll, and means directing the sliver to the feed apron.

3. In an apparatus for making yarn from long fibre, the improvements in supporting and feed ing apparatus for continuous sliver comprising housing having stalls open at opposite ends where by rolls of long fibre sliver may be loaded from one end and the sliver fed from the other end, a roughened traction applying roll mounted in the housing and traversing the stalls, a smcothtraea tion applying roll mounted in the housi traversing the stalls, said traction appl-yinr adapted to peripherally support a roll of s with the roughened roll positioned neare loading end of the stall, and means to roughened roll at a peripheral speed eubstar greater than the driven speed of the smoo 4. In an apparatus for making yarn froifibre having a minimum length of two feet i porting and feeding means comprising In vertical partitions dividing the housing int open at opposite ends whereby rolls of conti-n sliver of long fibre may be loaded from one e and fed from the other end, a roughened trasf.

ananas ersing the stalls, a smooth traction applying roll mounted in the housing and traversing the stalls, said traction applying rolls'adapted to peripherally support a. roll of sliver with the roughened roll positioned nearest the loading end of the y applying roll mounted in the housing and travstalls, and'means to drive the roughened'roll at a peripheral speed substantially greater than the driven speed of the smooth roll.

5. In an apparatus for making yarn from long l fibre having a minimum length of tworfeet. supporting and feeding means comprising a housing, vertical partitions dividing the housing into stalls the driven speed off the smooth roll whereby the open at opposite ends whereby rolls oi' continuous sliver of long nbre may be loaded from one vend and the sliver fed from the other end, a roughened traction applying roll mounted inthe housing, a f smooth traction applying roll mounted in thev housing, said traction rolls traversing the `stalls and arranged to `form a cradle for 'peripherally supporting rolls of sliver with the roughened roll Y. nearest the loading end, and means to drive the roughened roll at a peripheral speed substantially greater than the driven speed of the smooth roll wherebyl the lap of sliver is disengaged tromthe roll and caused to form a loose loop between` the rough and smooth rolls. v f i' 6. In an apparatus' for making yarn from long nbre, supporting and feeding means comprising lap of sliverfisdisengaged from the roll and caused to form a loose ffrolla. s i SAMUEL E. THOMAS.

'WALTER R. GUTIPIRJE.

REFERENCES orrnn The li'ollowing'referenc'es are of record in the l le of this patent:

y Name Date.

' Smith et al; Dec. 2. 1884 s Owen Feb` 7, 1911 Schmitt ,Dec. 12,1933 vJordan May 23, 1933 Littell July 6, 1943 yNumber loop between the rough and smooth 

